Some Poems That We Might share ....

TRANSFORMATIONS -
by Thomas Hardy

Portion of this yew
Is a man my grandsire knew,
Bosomed here at its foot:
This branch may be his wife,
A ruddy human life
Now turned to a green shoot.

These grasses must be made
Of her who often prayed,
Last century, for repose;
And the fair girl long ago
Whom I often tried to know
May be entering this rose.

So, they are not underground,
But as nerves and veins abound
In the growths of upper air,
And they feel the sun and rain,
And the energy again
That made them what they were!

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The Serenity in Stones

I am holding this turquoise
in my hands.
My hands hold the sky
wrought in this little stone.
There is a cloud
at the furthest boundary.
The world is somewhere underneath.

I turn the stone, and there is more sky.
This is the serenity possible in stones,
the place of a feeling to which one belongs.
I am happy as I hold this sky
in my hands, in my eyes, and in myself.

—Simon J. Ortiz, 1975
~~ Beautiful…

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My poem

Had a bad day
Lemon taco farts
Your best friend is gay
You smell like roses
Life is hell like overdoses
Will you save the world like moses
Does this sound like rap
But rap is crap
No more about money and ho’ses
This is the life that chose us
But noone to hold us
We’re stiff like rock
Suck my cock
Tick tock there goes the clock
Youre slow like gold
You live to break the mold
But you fill the mold
Ice like cold
We see the clock
We fill the sock
Because its fun to mock
These events are timeless
We dont even know what time is
Do you see these onesies
And now their none, see?
You’re like a flat pancake
You don’t know what’s up, mate
You’re off the ground
About to pound
But you think you’re safe and sound
You think im lying
Well see who’s crying
It’ll come for you
Gods master plan
Will you be sighing?
Or be smiling?
See, Im not like anyone around me
I see things others don’t and can’t see
Help me help me
Help me get to the top of the stairs?
Wont you help me get to the top of the stairs?
For a larger, more comfortable, narrower,…waterfall…

I liked your rap, Trixie. I don’t normally like rap to music unless it’s intelligent and makes sense. Much of the rap out there to me is garbage - too violent, graphically sexual and derogatory/racist - but that’s just me. I enjoyed reading your poem. It made sense too as did the rhyming. Wonderer opened a thread called A Thread for Rap. You might consider copying and pasting this over there though of course you don’t have to. This thread is basically for poems by known poets, published ones.
But it doesn’t really matter. But still, you might consider ALSO putting your rap poem over there. It was good. Maybe some others in here will follow suit and that thread could be resurrected.
:mrgreen:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=168162#p2075985

Sing we for love and idleness
Naught else is worth the having

Though I have been in many a land,
There is naught else in living,

And I would rather have my sweet,

Though rose-leaves die of grieving.

There do high deeds in Hungary

To pass all men’s believing.

Ezra Pound

That was 2008-2009. Yeah, it’s 2021. I’ve experience love directly in this time, (that is, fucking). In the end, it sucks.

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life that you could save.

There is just something about this poem which grabbed onto me in the moments which I read it.

It didn’t speak to me - it shouted to me. So beautiful.

Really beautiful, Arcturus.

And, so this is:

“You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
Come on, baby, light my fire
Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on, baby, light my fire
Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on, baby, light my fire
Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire, yeah
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
Come on, baby, light my fire
Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire
Try to set the night on fire”

Songwriters: Jim Morrison / John Densmore

Now Arc, the beauty consist within the highest , but literal metaphore, that is aligned to a progressive alignment to the idea that releases from the darkness . ( of the Platonic cave)

That this ancient idea, and because of it, Prometheus suffered the effects of the slicing of the metaphor by a double edged sword, … Is an ancient cause celebre. For which and through which Your quoted and my quoted one, appears on dissolute pages of recognition.

Especially this:

“But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,”

<
<<
<<<>
<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<

The upward movement, and the feeling that the upward movement is indiginous toward a light of stars, with stars’ burning , causing the primordial light, that we realize to be the same , that we lack, through an internal void, that we need to reclaim, by leaving the darkness behind.

Meno,

God, that is still just as beautiful and continues to give me the shivers as I read it. I wonder why that is.

Praying
by Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

From: Thirst: Poems

I came across this poem and I thought it was beautiful. It could be the most simple and unobtrusive thing we see which suddenly strikes us and turns us on to gratitude and opens that portal to a communion with Something. I suppose it also depends on “where” we are in the moment and “who” we are in the moments.

edit; turns out love doesn’t suck so much, Sarah.


[i]Le viril jus est séparé de mon sang,
Mais je t’ai tout amours préservé du feu du ciel.
Comme si l’on ne risquait plus de se brûler;
Car le feu ne s’éteint pas, qu’en mourant naisse
Et s’échappe en passeant par ton fontaine enflammée,
Ton arcane érotique; tu en s’allumant,
Rentrés par la chute des anges dans les terre.
Je t’ai déjà promis, tandis que je nourris mon coeur a lui-meme,
O résidu de la vie, tu seras le vieux tableau d’or et de perles.

Et cet amour tombe comme l’ombre,
Dans la loi fatale de notre vieux rêve,
Borne comme l’hiver, comme un soleil lointain
Et encore plus lointain l’été.

Le viril jus est séparé de mon sang,
Mais tu es l’aurore de ma vie récapitulée.
Traîne le reste inferne, ô la chaste et légère enfant:
Le remords, la crainte, les regrets mêlés au plaisir.
Laisse-moi sur ces entassements inégaux:
Toute la vie humaine, les douleurs, la gloire,
L’innocence et la méchanceté, les plaisirs, la force;
Pour mon coeur-fardeau, poids se détacher de toutes ces
Misères qui sont plus qu mort.
Moi, qui suis enfin heureux, je veux être fidèle
Aux souffrances et le jour du premier aveu;
Je vais à ton autel, mon âme est fière
De me dépouiller ainsi dans ta solennelle:

Je me suis jeté dans les bras d’une femme,
Et je ne pouvais que rester et mourir en silence,
L’effusion de mon amour ne fut sans doute
Une pâle allégorie de ma joie;
Joie que je ne comprenais pas.
Ces questions n’y recevaient pas leur dernière réponse.

Ce jour, tu m’as reçu sans me demander qui j’étais;
Car tu savais. Ce jour, tu m’as pris en travers de ton fier cœur,
Et à la fin tes lèvres ont daigné m’ouvrir, bien que,
Dans ton sein, mes souffrances y fussent enchâssées.
Nous avons, l’une et l’autre, conçu une infidélité
Qui nous séparait, mais qui n’avait pas empêché
Nos amours de se renouveler.
Ici, je te montre ce qu’il était possible que tu devinsses.

Parce que je garde encore les seules questions
Auxquelles vous n’avez pas trouvé de réponses.
Parce que j’ai encore les seules questions
Que vous n’avez pas posées.
J’ai toujours la question que vous craignez.
L’âme est l’ennemie de la chair;
Quand la nature de notre pouls a changé,
Et l’esprit avec ses lumière a détruit les apparences,
La moindre de nos sensations nous donne le bonheur,
Et des évanouissements qui sont l’cendre des extases.
Une pâle allégorie de ma joie; les anges-mères
Qui me conduisaient à travers ton jardin, me connaissaient d’avance;
Et mon coeur s’évapora vers leur sein sacré.
Même dans ces écrits d’amour,
Que rien ne pouvait faire comprendre, même à soi-même;
Un poète vivra, par le soin de son rêve:
L’image du coeur se dessinera d’elle-même
Dans sa réflexion; le plaisir qu’il y aura pris
Sera comme une eau qui coulerait et qui va loin,
Que tombe aussi dans les limbes de ta mémoire.

Parce que je garde encore les seules questions
Auxquelles vous n’avez pas trouvé de réponses.
Parce que j’ai encore les seules questions
Que vous n’avez pas posées.
J’ai toujours la question que vous craignez: qui est Sarah?
Vous m’avez dit que cette femme ne vous ressemble plus,
Que la jeunesse était une illusion:
La jeunesse n’est pas illusion, mais seulement indéfinie;
Chatoyant, instable, difficile à garder immobile, comme l’eau;
Comme le feu, car les deux éléments ont cette similitude.
Nous nous sommes vus de loin, tout à la fois;
Ainsi nous partageaient. A ce prix-là, tout est permis.
Tu dois savoir, qu’un désir, tout aussi puissant que mort,
M’a séparé d’beaute:
Mais j’ai toujours cherché à voir derrière ma douleur
L’amour que ta tendresse a pu me donner.
Toute amour se joue entre le monde et la mort;
Il faut aimer les deux.
Je ne peux que t’aimer de ce côté du tombeau,
Tandis que de l’autre côté du tombeau,
L’amour du monde commence, un amour silencieux:
Un jour, le silence se dira ces vérités éternelles;
Ce silence prononcera nos noms;
Sarah, Tyler…[/i]

                    [b]ENGLISH[/b]:

[i]The virile juice is separated from my blood,
But I have preserved you from the fire of heaven.
As if there was no risk of further burning myself:
For the fire is not extinguished, but when it dies,
It is born, and when it passes through you, erotic arcanum,
It escapes; when you burn, you are returned to the earth by the fall of angels.
I have already promised you, as I feed my heart back to itself,
Remnant of life, you will rest for me upon the old table of gold and pearls.

And that love falls like a shadow,
In the fatal law of our old dream,
Borne like winter, like a distant sun
And still more distant summer.

The virile juice is separated from my blood,
But you are the dawn of my life recapitulated.
Draw away the rest of hell, drag the infernal train,
O chaste and light child:
The remorse, the fear, the regrets mixed with pleasure.
Leave me on these uncertain heaps: all human life,
Pain, glory, innocence and wickedness, pleasures, strength;
My heart’s whole burden, a weight to separate
From all these miseries that are more than dead.
I, who am finally happy, I will be faithful to the sufferings
And to the day of the first confession;
I go to your altar, and my soul is proud to deprive me so in your solemnity.

I threw myself into the arms of a woman,
And I could only stay and die in silence,
The outpouring of my love was a pale allegory
Of my joy; joy that I did not understand.
Our questions did not receive their final answer there.

That day, you received me without asking me who I was;
For you already knew. That day, you took me across your proud heart,
And in the end your lips deigned to open me,
Though, in your womb, my sufferings were gathered up:
We both conceived an infidelity that separated us,
But which did not prevent our love from renewing itself.
Here, I show you what you could become.

For I still keep the only questions
For which you have not found answers.
For I still have the only questions
That you didn’t ask.
I still have the question you dread:
Who is Sarah?

The soul is the enemy of the flesh;
When the heart has learned to measure its song by some new rhythm,
And the spirit with its light has burnt away all mere appearances,
The least of our sensations gives us happiness,
And fainting spells that leave us smoldering in our ecstasies.
A pale allegory of my joy; ere the mother-angels
Who led me through your garden, even knew me before you;
And my heart evaporated towards their sacred bosom.
Even in these writings of love,
That nothing could explain, even to oneself;
A poet will live, by the care of his dream:
The picture of the heart will draw itself
In his reflection; the pleasure he obtained
Will be like flowing water that goes far,
Far enough to find a kind of Wisdom, if not Truth,
That also falls into the limbo of your memory.

For I still keep the only questions
To which you have not found answers.
For I still have the only questions
That you didn’t ask.
I still have the question that you dread: who is Sarah?
You told me that woman no longer resembles you,
That youth was an illusion:
Youth is not illusion, but only indefinite;
Shimmering, unstable, difficult to keep still, like water;
Like fire, because both elements have this similarity.

We saw each other from afar, all at once;
So we shared each other. At that price, anything goes.
You must know, that a desire, just as powerful as death,
Separated me from Beauty:
But I always tried to look beyond my pain,
Into the love that your tenderness was able to give me.
All love is played out between the world and death;
One must love the one they love, and love the world too.
But I can only love you on this side of the grave,
While on the other side of the tomb,
The love of the world begins, a silent love:
One day, Silence will tell itself these eternal truths;
This silence will pronounce our names;
Sarah, Tyler…[/i]